


Searchlight

by Red



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Bad at the Scientific Method, Canon Disabled Character, Dehumanizing, Epistolary, Human Experimentation, Kink Meme, Mutant Rights or Lack Thereof, Other, Pack Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-11
Updated: 2011-09-11
Packaged: 2017-10-23 16:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/252202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red/pseuds/Red
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kinkmeme fill for the prompt, "Instead of warily accepting the mutants and their potential as spies, the US government sees them as an entirely separate species and locks them up to study them." A researcher bids to keep his subjects, and further the field of Mutant Behavioral Studies. Possible triggers include dehumanization, torture, ableism, homophobia, and all the other usual White Dudes in Lab Coats baggage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Searchlight

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [探照光](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1455151) by [Caaroline](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caaroline/pseuds/Caaroline)



August 18, 1967

To the board:

First, allow me to open by extending my condolences to the colleagues of those lost during the events which occurred on the 5th of August. As research lead on the Searchlight Project, I must accept responsibility for the actions of my associates on that day. Those actions left much to be desired in the fields of professionalism and scientific inquiry, and disciplinary actions have been taken. While the event was unquestionably a tragedy, the new containment protocol enacted at our facility shall prevent such mistakes in the future.

The purpose of this letter is to defend the decision of the Searchlight team to keep the NA-01 mutant group intact, and to argue against the various proposals to terminate subject DEU-K-00009, subject GBR-M-00001, or both. Attached, you will find the dossiers of both mutants, as well as copies of observational data collected during their time in Searchlight. As both subjects have been studied for the greater part of the last two decades, I will provide a brief summary of the salient details of their involvement in my studies.

There tends to be a greater familiarity with subject GBR-M-00001 within the US scientific community, given that it was transported from England to State labs in September 1940. As the board is aware, the bid to keep GBR-M-00001's considerable powers from Axis control was a significant boon to strategic defense and scientific inquiry both. The subject was also one of the first to show that interaction with other mutants may increase productivity in M-types, as the data before and after the introduction of USA-P-00020 indicates. The Searchlight project was planned and devised around those decades of study on GBR-M-00001. While the incidents of the 5th will certainly delay our research considerably, the recent termination of USA-M-00007 and the lack of another M-type mutant with the necessary control to use Searchlight equipment are alone proof in GBR-M-00001's worth as a subject.

The board may not be as familiar with DEU-K-00009, a subject of considerable power released to us under Directive no. 89 of the Allied Control Council. While the Directive released to Allied military test facilities many weaponized Axis mutants, DEU-K-00009 is considered a "weaponized" mutant in name only. Despite the undeniable military-industrial potential of the subject's mutation, the short-sightedness and unprofessionalism of scientists within the Nazi regime had the subject kept in standard experimental facilities. It is the belief of this writer that DEU-K-00009 was released to US laboratories under the directive not for its powers, but rather due to the extensive behavioral problems present in the subject.

That DEU-K-00009 requires careful containment is well-documented. Errors in proper transportation of the subject have resulted in no less than twenty-seven fatalities since the subject has passed to American hands. Further, the subject is notoriously resistant to standard experimental protocols. These facts, coupled with the discomfort the subject often provokes in inexperienced research staff (notes in the file detail extensive and unsuccessful attempts to efface the subject's tattoo) had initially left this writer frustrated with the transfer of the subject from Berkeley to my facility in 1966. The subject has often been slated for termination, and this writer believed the powers it provided would prove of little use to Searchlight research.

However, the Searchlight complex had the necessary accommodations for the subject. Heads of mutant research have long been resistant to terminating DEU-K-00009 for the subject's considerable worth in genetic research. _In vitro_ fertilization of human oocytes with semen collected from the subject has consistently (in several documented trials in domestic and foreign labs, see enclosed) resulted in the formation of zygotes with mutant DNA. Given the standard 56% success rate, this is a frankly stunning occurrence. Further studies would provide considerable insight to the factors which cause mutants to be formed in otherwise healthy families. Indeed, for the genetic stock alone, one could argue the merits of non-termination of DEU-K-00009. Within the Searchlight facility, however, this writer discovered a secondary use for the mutant; and may have unlocked the secret to utilizing its powers within an experimental setting. The observational data (Attachment C) will assist in the board members' understanding of the further uses of DEU-K-00009 within our research.

Searchlight was initiated to locate new mutants for use in medical, defensive, and scientific research. Early in the development of the project, my colleagues and I anticipated our facility may by necessity become a layover point for mutants not yet selected by universities or research firms, and with this in mind a considerable habitat was built.

My interest in the upcoming field of mutant behavior is no secret, so I will make it clear to the board now: it was always my intent to create a "community" of subjects. While it appears mutants socialize normally within our own human families and communities prior to the actualization of their mutations, there has been little research regarding intraspecies interactions. The preliminary findings with GBR-M-00001 and USA-P-00020--and the resistance of GBR-M-00001 at the time to utilize Searchlight's apparatus--had my colleagues and I wondering if the formation of a mutant community may contribute to docility and stabilize the population of experimental subjects.

With this in mind, the main complex was retrofitted to ensure security and staff safety with the introduction of DEU-K-00009. As can be heard on the enclosed tapes, it became readily apparent to us when DEU-K-00009 first awoke in the facility that the subject had never been socialized with other mutants, and indeed believed itself an isolated experiment. It may be that many of DEU-K-00009's behavioral problems stem from the conventional practice of isolating or destroying K-type mutants, when many of the dangers presented by these mutants can be minimized through environmental control and proper use of standard containment protocol.

The use of C6-290 collars and the minimization of human trappings were successfully pioneered at Searchlight. Keeping subjects docile to experimental procedures can be easily facilitated by such simple interventions as removing clothing from the subject environment, though care must naturally be taken to keep the environs at a climate appropriate to the mutants. It was hoped, initially, that the introduction of DEU-K-00009 may result in the eventual impregnation of USA-P-00020 (an event which has since been brought about by artificial insemination from USSR P-type stock), but as the tapes show, the socialization of mutants is very different indeed from that of proper humans.

DEU-K-00009 did further stabilize GBR-M-00001. As abhorrent as the mating may be morally, the apparent pack hierarchy needs of mutants were fulfilled with DEU-K-00009. The potential implications of the mating are limitless--that there is likely a genetic mutation which causes human homosexuality brings medicine one step further toward a cure--and extensive research is still required. From preliminary studies, however, it appears sexually mature mutants may mate without regard to gender, and evaluate mating purely on perceived power of mutation. DEU-K-00009 is an exceedingly powerful subject, and while GBR-M-00001 presents with superior commercial use at this time, observation shows GBR-M-00001 to fill the role as the beta member of the NA-01 tribe.

After we allowed group dynamics to settle, we found quickly that where use of the C6-290 collar on GB-M-00001 failed, concurrent usage on USA-P-00020 and DEU-K-00009 succeeded. GBR-M-00001 began regular operation of Searchlight technology on June 12th. The benefits of this project have been far-reaching and innumerable, from the significant public safety measure of widespread containment of M-type mutant youth to the recapture of the military's CAN-P-00001. Few outside the facility are aware of the impact DEU-K-00009 had over these proceedings: though the subject continued with violent actions and ideations toward human staff, it appeared to show protective and at times nurturing behaviors toward its mate. Our research team was even able to succeed where twenty years of research on this subject could not: we finalized a comprehensive study on DEU-K-00009's powers in July, after utilizing the C6-290 extensively on GBR-M-00001.

Aside from USA-P-00104, who presents with significant use in genetic research, the other members of the NA-01 tribe were not initially intended to be permanent subjects of my facility. However, through lack of commercial usage (USA-P-00108), behavioral issues (USA-K-00068), or youth (USA-K-00094), they became the formative members of what would eventually be the first mutant community to be researched in captivity. The "tribe" (as one of the research assistants began to call it) readily accepted DEU-K-00009 and GBR-M-00001 as surrogate parental figures, indicating again that mutants display a pack dynamic very unlike our own species. The younger mutants could also be utilized to ensure GBR-M-00001's continuing cooperation with Searchlight, and, in turn, GBR-M-00001 and DEU-K-00009 could be used to ensure the cooperation of the younger mutants in various studies. Indeed, as can be heard on the enclosed tapes, the older mutants were key in assisting the young in actualizing the full extent of their powers.

Since this time, Searchlight has located more mutants of significant youth, currently held in facilities where they are frequently kept in solitary quarters. This writer believes the behaviors of mutants like DEU-K-00009 are enough to dissuade from this practice, and that a new protocol of cohabiting immature mutants with mature is advisable. Perhaps, in the future, some of these immature mutants may come to be members of NA-01.

This is, of course, granting the board's decision to keep DEU-K-00009 and GBR-M-00001. The fatalities and destruction of Searchlight equipment was a foreseeable error, and responsible parties have been dismissed from Searchlight employ. That one of the undergraduate researchers erroneously believed the presence of DEU-K-00009 in the main test complex would encourage rapid data production from the machine/GBR-M-00001 interface is well-documented in official records. This student paid for this mistake with his life, and those of six of his fellows. The Searchlight interface is irreparable, and GBR-M-00001 will bear permanent injuries from that day.

The proposal to destroy GBR-M-00001 on the basis of its injuries seems, to us here at Searchlight, hasty and frankly illogical. Were GBR-M-00001 a weaponized mutant, or were its mutations physical in nature, euthanasia would indeed be advisable. Our facility easily stabilized the subject's condition, and observations of the NA-01 group in these weeks has shown the mutants perfectly capable of independently maintaining the health of GBR-M-00001. Enclosed, you will find footage of the other mutants gathering food for, bathing, and even engaging in what appears to be rudimentary physical therapy with their injured "beta parent." GBR-M-00001 does not need its legs any more than a leopard needs spots or a moose antlers: clearly important adaptations all, but hardly necessary to the essence of the animal.

Arguing for DEU-K-00009's continuation as a subject is more difficult. That day has brought us up to thirty-four American fatalities at the powers of this mutant, and DEU-K-00009 is young yet. However, my colleagues and I have observed an increase in withdrawn and depressive behaviors in GBR-M-00001, and it is our concern that the termination of DEU-K-00009 would only compromise the Searchlight project further. We are not aware of many things regarding the mating of mutants, and of M-type mutants in particular. The telepathic mutation may create circumstances in which permanent mental connections are made with other mutants--connections that may lead to fatalities in M-types at the death of their mates. I would like the opportunity to research this group further, with the permission of the board.

It is further the belief of this writer that DEU-K-00009 is displaying behaviors indicative of guilt related to the incident. Were that it was also directed to humankind, but the actions of the subject around its mate leads our research team to believe DEU-K-00009 may now be more docile to our experiments, even more protective of the safety of its mate.

Searchlight can be rebuilt. Indeed, it had been my intention to recreate the apparatus before this incident. The first apparatus showed considerable promise, but preliminary blueprints of a new model--one which can reach out with broader scope, possibly allowing us to reach Soviet mutants before their eventual weaponization--are nearly complete. I, for one, am invigorated by the prospect of working with a new Searchlight without the inevitable first-generation bugs: from the enclosed data on page 24, one can clearly see Searchlight had an unfortunate rate of false-positive identifications.

It is my hope that the board will make the decision to continue Searchlight funding and maintain the NA-01 group.

The future of genetic research, mutant behavioral studies, and our very safety as Americans may depend on your choice.

Sincerely,

Henry Philip McCoy, PhD.  
Research Lead

**Author's Note:**

> This fill also wound up inspiring a super neat follow up fic by Tawabids, which you can read [here](http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/7315.html?thread=14666643#t14666643) on the meme (or, I just realized, [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/524324) on AO3). Thanks to the OP for the prompt, and Tawabids for their amazing story.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [But Can They Suffer?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6574993) by [Unrepentant_Marvelite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unrepentant_Marvelite/pseuds/Unrepentant_Marvelite)
  * [Searchlight [Cover]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6587812) by [greeniron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeniron/pseuds/greeniron)




End file.
